Sitting on a toilet for Two Years
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 3.2 million Americans ages 18-54 have agoraphobia, an abnormal fear of open spaces which predominantly affects women. In a certain manner it is the opposite of claustrophobia, the abnormal fear of enclosed spaces, although both phobias may entail fear of crowds or losing control.
Years ago I employed a woman who was agoraphobic and had to come to work escorted by a female friend. Although she had no problem greeting strangers inside my jewelry store, she had a morbid fear of meeting strangers outside of it. When her friend died she got married, I suppose so she would have company when she went to the supermarket. I've never seen her alone.
So I understood the dynamic behind the story today of the Kansas woman who sat on her boyfriend's toilet for two years (1) (so long that her body was stuck to the seat by the time the man finally called police). I've heard of fears of sitting on the toilet too long or snakes or monsters or rats coming out of it, but this is the first time I've heard of a fear of leaving a toilet seat. But perhaps it's not a phobia at all, but rather the joy of sitting on a toilet? So before anyone names this particular ailment I would like to offer sessiophilia: the love of sitting down.
I should mention that I have a few relatives that have Parcopresis, a version of toilet phobia, or the inability to defecate when other people are around.
There are Millions with Toilet Phobia
The National Phobics Society in the UK estimates at least four million Britons have toilet phobia (2). If you, dear reader, are one of these, then here is a UK site if you have any kind of worries about toilets, are afraid to go on a long journey in case there aren't any around, or nervous about using public toilets or relieving yourself outdoors on a country walk.
I'm certain that one of the main reasons that Brits have toilet phobias is precisely because they put up with all the crap from Muslims. Every single day one can read about someone in Britain bending over and taking it up the kazoo over some Muslim petty demands. Remove pork from this cafeteria or take out piggy banks from that store window (3) or take out art in that museum (4). Amazingly, Muslims don't even have to ask, these cowards preemptively remove things that "might" offend Muslims. It shouldn't be long before Shariah Law is implemented in the UK.
I should confess that we in America bend over as well for Muslims, so much so that even when Muslims torture animals PETA is fearful to protest (5).
ENDNOTES
(1):
LA Times, Kansas woman sat on toilet for two years
Authorities are considering charges in the bizarre case of a woman who sat on her boyfriend's toilet for two years -- so long that her body was stuck to the seat by the time the man finally called police.
...
"We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital," Whipple said. "The hospital removed it."
...
McFarren, 36, told investigators he took Babcock food and water and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom.
"And her reply would be, 'Maybe tomorrow,"' Whipple said. "According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom."
(2):
BBC, Millions 'hit by toilet phobia'
The National Phobics Society estimates at least four million Britons are affected - but the true number could be many more.
In some cases people refuse to leave their homes, and risk their health.
The society has classified the disorder as an anxiety condition in its own right, and is launching a self help book and DVD.
Toilet phobia can simply be manifest as a mild distaste for public loos.
But some people develop such an intense obsession that they are left housebound, and may refuse to undergo potentially life-saving medical examinations.
(3):
The Age, Piggy banks 'offend UK Muslims'
British banks are banning piggy banks because they may offend some Muslims.
Halifax and NatWest banks have led the move to scrap the time-honoured symbol of saving from being given to children or used in their advertising, the Daily Express/Daily Star group reports here.
Muslims do not eat pork, as Islamic culture deems the pig to be an impure animal.
Salim Mulla, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, backed the bank move.
"This is a sensitive issue and I think the banks are simply being courteous to their customers," he said.
However, the move brought accusations of political correctness gone mad from critics.
"The next thing we will be banning Christmas trees and cribs and the logical result of that process is a bland uniformity," the Dean of Blackburn, Reverend Christopher Armstrong, said.
(4):
BBC NEWS, Tate 'misunderstood' banned work
Tate Britain "misunderstood" a piece of art it took out of a show to avoid religious offence, its creator said.
The gallery cancelled plans to display John Latham's God Is Great, concerned in particular that it could upset Muslims after London's 7 July bombings.
Latham was angered by the decision and said that the work, made 10 years ago, was "not offensive to anybody".
...
The gallery said: "Having sought wide-ranging advice, Tate feels that to exhibit the work in London in the current sensitive climate, post 7 July, would not be appropriate."
(5):
Accuracy In Media, Should Multiculturalism Take A Holiday?
While the principles of modernity have been widely accepted throughout the Judeo-Christian world, are primitive rituals based on current practices associated [with] fundamentalist Islam compatible with Western civilization? Can it be stated that fundamentalist Islam with its many anachronistic tendencies has begun the process of modernization? There is empirical evidence suggesting it has not.
Eddie Rowe, a hog farmer in North Carolina, recently sold approximately 250 animals to Muslim families this year for ritual slaughter during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. A December 2007, LA Times article reported that for the past six years, a large assembly of Muslim families left Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill to drive to Rowe's farm for a picnic during which the children played, ate sandwiches, and watched while the "patriarch of each family awaited his turn to slit the throat of a lamb or goat." Despite the tradition, this year's festivities did not go quite as planned. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture obtained a restraining order against Rowe, stating that he was "operating an unsanitary and illegal slaughter facility." Upon hearing of this, some of the Muslim families took their animals, saying they had plans to kill them elsewhere, they backed their vehicles into the barn where a farmhand bound the animals by their ankles, then dumped them into the trunks of cars.
Conspicuously absent was, PETA (People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals), which goes out of its way to take action when people hurt animals, including the use of animals for testing on cosmetics. PETA has been completely silent this week as millions of sheep, camels, and cows are being barbarically slaughtered often in the street in front of happy crowds of people, including children in honor of the Eid al-Adha celebration.
